Although the Left blames the deepeningÂ recession on capitalism and laissez-faire, research suggests left-wing activist groups played a significant role in the weakening of mortgage lending standards that caused the now-deflating housing bubble.

one of the loudest scourges of the banking industry in the post-bubble economy. It salts its Web site with photos of executives it accuses of standing in the way of helping homeowners — emblazoning “Predator” across their photos, picturing their homes and sometimes including home phone numbers. In February, NACA…protested at the home of a mortgage investor by scattering furniture on his lawn, to give him a taste of what it feels like to be evicted.

In the 1990s, Mr. Marks leaked details of a banker’s divorce to the press and organized a protest at the school of another banker’s child… “We have to terrorize these bankers,” Mr. Marks says.

Though some bankers privately deplore his tactics, Mr. Marks is a growing influence in the lending industry…NACA has signed agreements with the four largest U.S. mortgage lenders — Bank of America, Wells Fargo & Co., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. — in which they agree to work with his counselors on a regular basis to try to arrange lower payments for struggling borrowers. NACA has made powerful political friends, such as House majority whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, and it receives federal money to counsel homeowners. […]

David Hogberg observed inÂ CapitalÂ Research Center’sÂ Organization TrendsÂ that NACA routinely threatensÂ public relations campaigns against banks unless they hand over millions of dollars to fund NACA programs.

Even someÂ leaders of the minority groups NACA is supposedly trying to help,Â detest Marks and his obnoxious tactics.Â Former Massachusetts state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, a black Democrat, said Marks isÂ â€œthe kind of person who would throw a Molotov cocktail and then run in with a extinguisher and declare himself a hero for putting out the fire.”